Garment hangers



United States Patent Lawrence Hamilton Howard Holroyd 100 Park Road, Teddington, England Appl. No. 638,285

Filed May 15, 1967 Inventor Patented Dec. 8, 1970 GARMENT HANGERS 2 Claims, 7 Drawing Figs.

U.S. Cl.. 223/88 Int. Cl. A47j 51/08 Field oi'Search 223/85, 88,

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2/1907 Allardice 223/88X 2,893,614 7/1959 Rowe 3,306,506 2/1967 Batts FOREIGN PATENTS 499,268 1/1954 Canada 588,269 5/1947 Great Britain....

1,055,166 1/196'7 Great Britain Primary Examiner-Jordan Franklin Assistant ExaminerGeorge H. Krizmanich ABSTRACT: A garment hanger of the plastic type having an upwardly bowed portion for supporting a coat or jacket and a crossbar for supporting a pair of trousers or a skirt. The crossbar is resiliently supported on one end to one end of the bowed portion in a cantilever manner with the other end of the crossbar spaced below the other end of the bowed portion leaving a gap for hanging the trousers or skirt on the crossbar.

PATENTEU nan 8 19m 3545657 INvEN'ro W M M M0 4 LAWRENCE HAMILTON HOWARD HOLROYD GARMENT HANGERS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to garment hangers of the kind having a crossbar below a bowed portion. In garment hangers of this kind as hitherto proposed the crossbar is attached at both ends to the extremities of the bowed portion, necessitating the threading of the trousers or skirt through the aperture so formed. This operation is difficult to perform and requires manual dexterity. An object of the present invention is to render such hangers easier to use, both as to hanging and the removal of nether garment, that is, the one hanging on the crossbar.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION According to the invention, one end of the crossbar is unattached to and is spaced from the corresponding end of the bowed portion, leaving an open gap such that the garment can be hung by inserting it through the gap or in the case of skirts the crossbar will thread the tabs provided in the waistband thereof, and removed by the reverse action. Further, in the invention, the bar is resiliently connected to the bowed part, so that pulling downwards on the garment it supports, causes the bar to yield to facilitate removal;

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING In the Drawings:

FIG. 1 shows a side view of one example ofa hanger according to the invention.

FIG. 2 shows a view of one end of the hanger shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows a view of the other end of the hanger shown. FIG. 4 shows a cross section of the bowed portion of the hanger shown in FIG. 1, at the line A-A.

FIG. 5 shows an underside view of the bowed portion of the hanger shown in FIG. 1 the line 8-3 showing the position at which the cross section shown in FIG. 4 is taken.

FIG. 6 shows a detail, another example of the invention.

FIG. 7 shows a detail of a further example of the invention.

DESCRIPTION As shown in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, the example of a hanger according to the invention comprises a bowed portion 1 and a crossbar 2 joined to the portion 1 at one end by means of a supporting means 3. A hook 4 is provided on the bowed portion 1 for hanging the hangeron a suitable rail or other device. The hanger may conveniently be manufactured from a synthetic resin, with or without in fibres, although, of course, other materials may be used. To economize on material without sacrificing the strength of the hanger the bowed portion 1 at least, of the hanger, may be moulded with a honeycomb of stiffening ribs as shown in cross section in FIG. 4 and from the underside in FIG. 5 which shows only a portion of the length of the bowed portion 1. In a modification of the above example the supporting means 3 of the crossbar is replaced by supporting means 3A of resilient material such as for example, polypropylene. This modification is shown in FIG. 6 with the supporting means 3A deflected by forcing the crossbar 2 downwards. Another modification is shown in FIG. 7 in which the supporting means is constructed of two parts 6 and 7 hinged together at 8, the part 6 being attached to or formed integrally with the bowed portion 1 and the part 7 being attached to or formed integrally with the cross bar 2. A spring 9 is provided coupled to the part 6 or the bowed portion 1 and the part 7 or the crossbar 2 so as to resiliently constrain the crossbar 2 in a direction towards the bowed portion 1. The parts 6 and 7 have abutments which abut against one another at 10 so that the crossbar 2 normally occupies a position relative to the bowed portion 1 substantially shown in FIG. 1. The spring 9 should be such that it is prestressed when the parts 6 and 7 abut together at 10 sufiiciently to support the crossbar 2 and a pair of trousers or a skirt.

In a clothes hanger according to the invention the crossbar can be made of materials differing to that of the bowed portion, for example: anodised or plated metal in rod or tube form (the tubular form could have half rounded plastic plug ends), fibre reinforced plastics or one of the stronger plastics such as nylon etc., hard wood such as hickory etc. The clothes hanger could be in a simpler shape, i.e. solid or hollow forms and instead of being molded and could be made with former or jig tools to produce a cheaper product, with less costly initial tooling. Another method of production would be shaping or moulding from multiple synthetic resinated plywoods.

In a further developed form of this clothes hanger an addi tional crossbar or crossbars could be added to the bowed section FIG. 1 marked 1 by extending the depth of the support means 3 of FIG. 1 so that the additional crossbar would have a similar gap or space as the crossbar 2 shown in FIG. 1, and parallel with same, allowing the necessary space between the crossbars to facilitate sliding or folding trousers or skirt easily over or onto the crossbar.

This portion can be manufactured in a hollowed shape to lighten the article in weight for ease of use and to save raw materials used in the production of these clothes hangers.

I claim:

1. A garment hanger having a bowed portion so shaped and of such a size as to be suitable for supporting a coat or jacket and a crossbar supported below the bowed portion as a cantilever from the bowed portion at one end thereof, the crossbar being spaced at its free end from the other end of the bowed portion leaving a gap for threading the crossbar under a garment to be hung thereon, in which the improvement comprises a resilient supporting means joining the crossbar to the one end of the bowed portion, the supporting means comprising two parts of rigid material respectively joined to the bowed portion and the crossbar, hinge means joining said two parts so as to allow movement of the crossbar in a direction away from the bowed portion and resilient means tending to constrain the crossbar in a direction towards the bowed portion.

2. A hanger according to claim 1 wherein the parts of rigid material include abutments which about together under the influence of said resilient means, the crossbar being horizontal when the abutments abut together. 

